Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Title Play Life in the First Eight Years
Author Luella Angelina Palmer
Editor Seth Thayer Stewart
Publisher Ginn and company, 1916
Length 281 pages
Click here.

"The tendency toward the American disease neuritis is increased by the excitement of confusing noise and motion. Let the child, dressed in a bathing suit, dig and wade, build forts and hollow out tunnels, make molds with pails and pattypans, bury himself in the sand and wriggle out, sprinkle "sugar" through a funnel made of heavy paper or through a tin sieve, or run a sand mill. One toy should be used at a time and its possibilities almost exhausted before another one is supplied.

All the excursions, whether to country or seashore, should aim to promote the child's love of nature and to arouse a desire for understanding it rather than just collecting facts about it. Information can
be imparted when the child's curiosity is aroused or when he needs it to help him in his play; the "how" and "why" of facts that he can discover for himself should never be supplied, but every opportunity should be given him to find answers to his own questions.

A child of four or five may have a definite object for his walk—to watch the blacksmith or to look at the fire engine. His walks should make him acquainted with his neighborhood; if in the city, he should know its buildings, its streets, and the shops in the vicinity; if in the country, he should know the kind of trees and crops near the house as well as the design of fence and gate. By the time he is six he should be able to find his way home from any point within a radius of at least half a mile. He should gain some idea of the points of the compass. This is the real beginning of the study of geography."

Sources Of Free Books

All books are in public domain, unless indicated.

Google Book Search books are printable if switched to plain text, or page by page by right clicking on image of page(HTML mode only). *Switch to HTML(bottom of main Google Books Menu page) . **Click on the download button at link(upper right on sidebar) to download entire text in PDF.

*(10/10)This has been disabled. Hopefully the HTML button will come back. Books listed here are still linked in HTML. I have been able to change the end of the web address by hand from Text to HTML.

**(12/10)Google Books removed the PDF download button on the overview "About" book pages! To access a download, click on any page of the book to find the PDF download button in the upper right corner.

Internet Archives indexes several free book resources, has an excellent search engine, fully printable books, and an online flip-book reader with an audio reader. Readable online as plain text or as HTML(like a regular web page).

Rosetta Project groups vintage illustrated children's books by reading level, easy to read format, and has an audio reader. Not in public domain per their format. Read only, books downloadable for small fee.